Pavel Slusarenko about Ekaterina Borisova & Dmitry Sopot

Pavel Slusarenko, a coach from Valentina Tukova’s group told how junior pair Ekaterina Borisova / Dmitry Sopot prepared for the season and about their new programs.

P.S.: Last season was pretty successful for our guys from Perm. Three pairs got to the junior Grand-prix final, Katya and Dima won there, won the Junior Olympics, medaled at the World Junior Championships.

Unfortunately, due to Ekaterina’s illness their preparation was postpone a little bit. Although,they came at the last day of test skates in Novogorsk, but attend the rink only as spectators. Doctors recommended to complete the recovery period.

In the new season pair will compete with new programs. Olga Volozhinskaya did them. In my opinion, programs turned out interesting, different from those that were last season. It wasn’t an easy task, because last season’s programs were very succesfull, that affected the results of performances, however, we coped with the task. In the short program we used the music ‘Dance of the Knights’ by Bel Suono. For the free program – ‘Still Loving You’ by Scorpions. New programs are quite complicated.

During the last season Katya and Dima matured. Katya improved in the second mark for component scores. Guys have very unusual and new lifts. At the end of the season we tried a quadruple twist in the gym, but haven’t tried it on the ice. Because of Katya’s illness the work on new difficult elements slightly slowed down. So, in terms of the technical complexity the guys will have only one significant change compared to last year – triple toe loop jump. In the summer we sent Katya to Moscow, where she’s worked with coaches from CSKA for nearly two weeks. Her jumps become more stable and confident.

Dima grew a little bit. Now he’s gradually turning into a man. Katya’s illness made them closer. Dima realized that he can’t do without a partner and began to treat her more closely. Before, if something didn’t work out at trainings they immediately began to clash, but now the situation is quite different. Not a word of reproach, they hold hands, do everything together. And it seems to me that such a conscious understanding and support will enable them to reach a new, higher level.

He also mentioned that Anastasia Gubanova, who parted with her partner Alexei Sintsov continues to train, but yet without partner.

And here’s also a part about importance of triple jumps:

P.S.: Now, even in the junior pairs skating you can’t beat your competitors only with double jumps and Axels. If you remember, at the Junior World Championships in Hungary, only one pair – Dushkova / Bidar performed the triple jump, which allowed them to win the gold medal. This year’s at the test skates in Novogorsk several Russian junior pairs did and tried to do triple jumps. This are time’s realities.